


Dream of Better Things

by Estridde



Series: Song in This Book [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Chaotic Neutral AF, Coterie fun, F/F, F/M, First Meetings, Girl's played the games, Modern Girl in Thedas, mage sympathist, no real romance yet, some strong language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 01:34:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19140934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estridde/pseuds/Estridde
Summary: Dropped into Thedas, Kirkwall to be specific, Minerva has some hard times before she finds her way. Making money, finding places to stay, and gaining skills she needs to survive are all things she needs to work out if she expects to make her way in a world so different from her own. The story here is mostly snapshots of events and her dealing with the people she met along the way. This involves getting herself mixed up with the plot of DA2 more often than she’d like.This story begins with the first time she meets Cullen.





	Dream of Better Things

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!  
> This is a snippet taking place during DA2's quest Enemies Among Us out of a story I've had going in my head (and writing parts of then deleting) for a while now. It's the tale of a modern girl in Thedas that crash lands in Kirkwall around the time Hawke and her crew are getting together and goes up through DAI. I'm not sure about writing the whole thing, but I figured I'd put this out there and see if anyone liked it so... let me know. Be gentle. I'm really not much of a writer and have no beta.

“That Hawke woman is a menace, I tell you.” Minerva grumbled, looking out the wavy glass window of Swan’s Millinery, the finest millinery shop in Lowtown, also the only millinery shop in Lowtown, but that was a detail that was not to be minded. 

A small plump woman joined her by the window, standing on her toes for a better look, lifting her head high to see over the hat display. “Well, the way she’s laughing as she kicks the one ruffian’s arse, I’d say there’s a good chance she and her friends will be clearing out shortly.” 

Now, Minerva was getting frustrated, you see. She’d been waiting there long past when she’d meant to go home thanks to the little show her boss was so keen on enjoying rather than heading upstairs to her own little apartment. “That’s all well and good, Bridgette, but I really must be getting home before it gets too late.” 

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be alright, dear.” Her boss patted her shoulder ever so reassuringly. The woman’s stomach growled loudly enough for Minerva to take note and turn her head, eyebrow raised. “Goodness, it’s past my dinner time. I ought to head up and get on that. Be a treasure and lock up before you leave.”

It was not alright. 

Of course, it wasn’t. 

That fact was becoming stunningly clear by the time Minerva was yanking on the door to her shared hole in the wall. Locked, yep. Cool, cool, cool. 

There wasn’t any time to muse about how thoroughly ratchet her life had turned into, however, as the sun was already setting and for someone like her, a petite woman with little ability when it came to self-defense, being outside in Lowtown at night was asking for trouble. It was high time to brush up on the old lockpicking skills. 

Lord, who would have thought the thing she learned to aid in grad school pranks would be an actual life skill. Le sigh. She quickly began digging through her purse for anything that might do the trick, finding old spare paperclips and stray bobby pins. 

She picked them up and rubbed them between her fingers, considering. Which was better to sacrifice? Paper clips were probably less useful to her. Controlling her wild, curly hair was hard enough without modern hair products. Looked like her poor saved paper clips were on the chopping block. 

She quickly took to bending them in such a way, they stood a chance of getting the job done and crouched down. Squinting in the low light of dusk, Minerva found the keyhole to the doorknob. “Come on, babe. We got this.” She muttered under her breath.

It couldn’t have been more than two minutes of struggling with suboptimal, rather bendy tools when the clamor of heavy footsteps gave her pause. She peeked over her shoulder, the sight of a looming figure making her jump and loose grip on her tools. “Crap.”

“Excuse me, serah, but what are you doing?” Minerva looked over the figure, a man in heavy armor and skirt. Great, a templar, some self-righteous shit that couldn’t mind their own business. 

She stood up and smoothed her skirt. “Listen, pal, I’ve had a rotten--” Oh, not just a templar, she found as she met eyes with the young Knight-Captain Cullen Rutherford. The realization caught her off guard, the words stuck in her throat. Every time she saw one of them, the reality of the situation hit her again. She was in a freaking video game. “D-don’t you have innocent mages to harass or something?” Her words sounded weaker than intended and she frowned. Now she really did sound like she was up to no good.

“It would seem you were breaking into this residence.” He threw her a hardened look, his lips a thin line, and placed his hand on his pommel, the very picture of authority. “Surely the guard--”

“No. No, no, no… I live here. Really. Just got locked out.” Jingled the door, she looked back to him. She threw in some eyelash batting for good measure, couldn’t hurt to try the big eye innocent look. 

Sadly, his expression remained unwavering and unimpressed. Darn, that usually worked, at least on cops. “Then perhaps we should speak to your landlord. They could clear this up quite easily.”

“Afraid not, actually.” Minerva gave a sheepish smile. There wasn’t much way of making this sound all that great. “It’s more of a crashing at some friends pad than technically ‘renting’ the place… and I’d like to keep it that way. So, ‘less you want to head up to the red district..” she paused for effect. Whores, chantry boy. Think of all the scandalous whores. Aw, he was blushing, at least she was pretty sure, given the lighting. He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly anyway. “...with me, to see my roommates, I don’t think we’re getting this easily cleared up.”

“Your roommates are… uh, well. I, uh, am actually heading there... now.” The poor boy was mortified and blushing. 

Minerva gasped and put a hand to her chest, trying to hold back a laugh. What on earth could he have been doing? “Oh, my. I didn’t think you templar types were supposed to indulge in such earthly delights.”

“No, I-uh. It’s not that at all. I am investigating-- uh. It’s official templar business. I need to speak with some of the young ladies there.”

“Suuure.” she nodded sagely. “Templar business.” So it was that one quest he was on. The ones with the possessed templar recruits. Funny how that didn’t make templars turn the band on each other, the dirty hypocrites. 

He frowned and turned, putting back on that serious face and clearing his throat once again. “Come, then. We’ll find the truth of this situation and see if I turn you in to the guard.”

“Really?” Shit, he really wasn’t going to let it go then. He was already walking in the direction of Hightown. She heavily sighed for what had to be the millionth time in this stupid day. “Oh, fine. Super. Great.” Reluctantly, she trudged after him. 

The walk was quiet, too quiet, really. Cullen plowed onward wordlessly for what had been minutes! It was boring. “You’re awfully serious for someone so young, Mister Templar Boy.”

“Cullen.” he replied flatly, making no attempt to address her comment. “My name is Cullen Rutherford.”

“Cullen, then. Maybe you should sample some of the wares while we’re there.” The embarrassment radiating off him made her smirk and continue pushing the envelope. ”Might loosen you up. Oh, a sensual massage might do the trick.” 

“I don’t… pay for such things. It doesn’t seem right.” He frowned and his eyes got a bit wide, he cast his gaze downward. “It’s f-fine if y-people make their living that way, I mean. You, you’re not a--?” He choked on the word, ever bashful. 

“Sex worker? No. Madam Lusine at the Rose has offered me a job a few times, but I don’t think I have the temperament for it. Besides, I so rarely enjoy sex, I doubt it’d be all that fun. Hm,” she mused. “Maybe a dominatrix deal would be enjoyable? I don’t know.”

Cullen, looking rather desperate to get off of the topic then asked, “Could we speak of something else? What do you do for a living, what’s your name, for example?”

“Minerva’s the name. I the milliner and corsetière for The Swan in Lowtown. A lot of the girls and guys up in the district come for our wares. We offer the highest quality of feminine clothing and hats for a reasonable price, be you guy, gal, or nonbinary pal.” Ugh, she clearly had been working too hard. Giving sales pitches to templars, lord help her. “Not that I think you particularly in the market for such things. Forgive me. I’m tired.”

Surprisingly, he gave a warm, throaty chuckle. “That’s quite presumptuous. You don’t think I could pull off wearing your fine hats and corsets, Minerva?”

Minerva snort-laughed in surprise to find he was making a joke. “I think you’d look positively ravishing, ser.” He probably would too, not that she needed to fantasize about that impossibility right now. “That’s why I was too late getting home, you know?”

“Is that right?” He asked, walking the steps up to Hightown, their destination not too far off now.

“Mmhm. That woman that’s always causing a commotion, Hawke I think her name… she and her whatever were in quite the brawl outside my workplace. I had to wait for the streets to clear enough that I could safely make the trip home without ending up collateral damage. By the time I made it back, Pearl and Ruby had already left, along with their keys. I can’t really blame them. Someone probably would have really broken in if they hadn’t.”

“I heard about that, in the market. And I happened upon you soon after you made it home.” He let a huff of air out through his nose and stopped walking, looking to her. “I’ve been having a terrible day myself. When I saw you, I thought I might be able to at least stop one bad thing from happening.” Now that they were face to face and she was less anxious and angry, she could see his face. He was much too young to look as tired as he did, tired as she felt. It was hard not to have a bit of empathy for him, even if she was still peeved by the situation he caused.

“If someone had been actually breaking in and I was there alone, I’m sure I would have thanked you.” She offered with a small smile then turned and kept walking. “Come on. We’re not much further.” 

“You should go find your friend once we’re there.” He said, in a way showing he did believe her, even if it wasn’t quite said in words. “I’ll collect you once I’m done trying to find anyone that might talk to me at The Blooming Rose.” 

“You really think they’re going to talk to you at the Rose?” she asked. A not so nice idea blooming in her mind, well, less nice for him and his order. He did probably ruin her night after all.

“I have to try. It’s my duty to investigate… what I’m investigating..” 

“Honey,” she said sweetly. “If you talk to anyone in there, I’m going to hear the gossip about it by tomorrow anyway. What if I went in for you and asked whatever it is you’re going to ask? I know them. They’ll talk to me more readily than you. Plus, you don’t have to get all embarrassed.”

He considered her for a moment. Come on, can’t be any worse than telling Hawke tomorrow. “Alright. I am looking for leads on the whereabouts of Wilmod and Keran, two missing templar recruits.”

She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

As they finally made their way to the district with its red lanterns and scantily clad men and women all about, Minerva looked for her friends, asking familiar faces to point her in the right direction. The one of the duo was on a corner, when they finally found her, the other around the alleyway talking to a gentleman, “Ah, Ruby! How goes the night?”

“We’re doing alright, sugar, though the nights still young.” Ruby, a tall, lush-lipped redhead smiled, and kissed her cheeks in greeting. “Who’s this cutie?” she asked a flustered Cullen with a hand on her hip.

“Ser Cullen Rutherford, Ruby.” She gestured between the two. “Hey, could ya give him the keys if you have to skedaddle? I got to run to the Rose real quick. Keep him entertained, if you’d be so kind.” She heard a ‘sure thing’ as she took off, leaving him mortified and Ruby ever so amused. 

Once she had entered the establishment, she ventured over to the bar and slide into a seat close to Madam Lusine, the woman giving her a raised brow, “Here for a service or something else today.”

Minerva flagged down Quintus, the bartender, for a drink and placed an order. “Here for the something else. Found some information, might need a little more than the going rate for it.”

“Tell me and I’ll decide how much it’s worth.” the woman said, looking none too impressed.

She sipped her drink casually swirling it “Alright. Some high up in the templars discovered that recruits are going missing after visiting the ‘Exotic Wonder’ chick. She needs to get out of this establishment and, if I’m being honest, out of town for being a rumored blood mage before they raid the joint. One such is outside questioning folks as we speak.”

Lusine slinked off to confirm what was said, leaving Minerva to finish her drink. When she returned, she pressed a sovereign into her hand. “Thank you for the information. Have a good evening.” 

Minerva gave her a lackluster salute and sauntered outside to find Cullen still standing right where he was left. “The keys.” he held them out. She grabbed them with a smile and started heading in the direction of home with him in tow. “Were you able to find any information?”

“Yes, ser. Both gents were there just recently, the one said something about heading to the Wounded Coast to clear his head to the bartender, the woman both had seen there has disappeared as well.” 

“Hm, not a lot to go on, but it’s a lead.” he mused as they walked. There was a notable amount of more pep in his step that made her tired ass have a hard time keeping up. “With luck, they’ll both have gone there and it will be all put to bed by tomorrow.”

“Hope so. Just.. be careful, alright?” she regarded him wearily. “Things aren’t always what they appear.” For example, don’t get killed because ya girl was lying. 

Cullen looked to her pointedly. “That’s true. I apologize for making you prove yourself today. Thank you for your help with this. I should probably give you an award for your assistance.” Oh-ho-ho, he didn’t know how right he was. That’s even worse, or better, depending on the way you looked at it. 

“Tell you what, buy me dinner at the Hanged Man before you dropped me off and we’ll call it square.”

She wondered if any of the coterie fellas were up for splitting an award for rescuing a young templar recruit.


End file.
